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Joining the Twitterverse

You may have heard of Twitter. It is a social media phenomenon which has grown from humble beginnings to over 19 million users at the end of 2009.

What is Twitter?

Twitter is a website (www.twitter.com) where users can post messages about themselves and their interests. It can be used to discuss any topic with millions of users around the world.

Using Twitter you can follow the 'tweets' or messages of other users in a list to keep abreast on the topics you're interested in. All messages must be 140 characters (including punctuation) or less, like a text message on a mobile phone.

Many celebrities now have twitter accounts and can be followed to keep up with their news and thoughts about topics or events.

Why would I join Twitter?

You might have a hobby or interest which you'd like to share with the world. It's also great for keeping up with the latest news stories and worldwide events. You can use twitter to give family and friends bite size updates about your life. It is excellent when travelling around as you can 'tweet' your location, what you are doing and anything else interesting you come across.

How does Twitter work?

You will need to join twitter as a user to begin with at twitter.com/signup. Select a username and fill in the form to join up. Once joined you can customise the appearance of your twitter home page using the Profile & Settings menus to include your own background, logo and biographical information. Make sure not to post any information that could be used to identify you personally as all information on twitter is public - You don't want to be the target of identity theft!

Once on your home page you can post up messages about yourself or thoughts on topics or whatever you like.

You will need to find followers (other users that read your posts) which you can do by advertising your username to family and friends who can then join you. Users can also find you by searching on keywords and reading your posts in the results. If they like what they see they will follow you too.

You can follow other people the same way by searching for their username if you know it, their real name if they use it or by searching on topics or keywords you are interested in. To follow someone else click on Find People, search for the person then click the 'Follow User' icon. When you are following someone, all of their 'tweets' will be displayed on your homepage.

Tricks for Twitter

You can link your Facebook or LinkedIn account to Twitter to copy updates from either website to the other.
If you come across an interesting 'tweet' by another user, you can 'Retweet' it to share it with your followers by clicking on the 'Retweet' link.
If you want to send a message to a specific user, start the message with @ then their username e.g. @johnsmith. This message will be send to their twitter directly as reply to their last message.
Twitter is also support on many mobile phones; check the help section on twitter.com for more info.